Passionate Pleasures (31 page)

Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

First published by New American Library,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, August 2010

Copyright © Bertrice Small, 2010

All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Small, Bertrice.
Passionate pleasures/Bertrice Small.
p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-101-45886-0

1. Women librarians—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.M28P37 2010
813’.54—dc22 2010010402

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O
n the following July 12, Cora Nicole Blair was born at Egret Pointe General Hospital. She was delivered not by Drs. Lindeman or Wheeler, the local obstetricians, but by Dr. Sam Seligmann at her mother’s specific request. She weighed in at seven pounds, seven ounces, was twenty-one inches long, and had a fuzz of red-gold hair and large blue eyes. She immediately tested ten on the Apgar scale. Her parents were totally besotted with her. Dr. Sam pronounced her a perfect baby.

“I know that Cora is a Blair family name,” Hallock said to his sister as he sat in her hospital room. “But where does the Nicole come from, Kathy?”

“It’s for a friend I used to have,” Kathryn answered.

“Did I know her?” her brother asked, curious.

“No,” Kathryn said. “You didn’t.” And she smiled to herself.

“Well,” Hallock St. John V said, “I hope Cora Nicole grows up to be every bit the good woman her mother is!”

“So do I,” Timothy Blair said, leaning over his daughter’s basinette.

“Me too,” Kathryn echoed, and then she laughed, for if she had been happy before, she was even happier now, if such a thing were possible. There might not be any more babies, given her age, but with Tim for a husband there would always be plenty of passionate pleasures for them to enjoy, she was absolutely certain. And she suspected that their one little miracle was going to be more than a handful if she was anything like her parents. Or—perish forbid!—her namesake
.

“A pleasurable erotic tale. . . . Fans will enjoy Bertrice Small’s fine character study.”

—The Best Reviews

“The queen of sensual romance has done it again. . . . Sizzling.”

“Erotica has never been done more tastefully, or been more captivating.”

—Romance Junkies

“Arranged marriages are nothing new but the spin that Small puts on her contemporary version is hot and different . . . definitely scorching.”

—
Romantic Times

“Full of emotions and unruly feelings. . . . An entertaining read. . . . Ms. Small writes every character realistically and with realistic faults.”

—Romance Junkies

“Small is the queen of steamy romance, and this sequel to
Private Pleasures
is a truly entertaining fantasy that delivers. . . . Fans of erotic romance will not want to miss Emily’s sexual awakening.”

“One of the best erotic novels I have read this year . . . with her trademark savvy, sass, and sensuality all wrapped up in one seriously beguiling package . . . a winner.”

—A Romance Review

“A complete success . . . gritty, truthful, and of course, extremely sexy.”

“[A] XXXX tale . . . fans of erotica will enjoy.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“Ms. Small delights and thrills.”

“Bertrice Small creates cover-to-cover passion.”

BOOKS By BERTRICE SMALL

THE BORDER CHRONICLES

THE FRIARSGATE INHERITANCE

CONTEMPORARY EROTICA

THE O’MALLEY SAGA

THE WORLD OF HETAR

MORE BY BERTRICE SMALL

SKYE’S LEGACY

H
is full name was Lucifer Nicholas, but few knew that. He was known simply as Mr. Nicholas, CEO of the powerful privately held company known as The Channel Corporation. He was a charming man, soft-spoken with a slight crisp British accent, graying hair and coal black eyes. He wore custom-tailored suits and beautiful shoes. His interests were wide and they were diverse as well as being successful and profitable. He was a major stockholder in a large tobacco company. Channel Artists represented several important rock stars and actors. His people lobbied to drill for oil on public lands.

And of course he had created the clandestine interactive entity known as The Channel. The Channel was for women, and women alone. It allowed them to live out their wildest fantasies each evening between eight P.M. and four A.M. the following morning. Their husbands and boy-friends knew nothing about The Channel. It was just one of those premium channels on the satellite or cable bill, like Disney. If asked about it a woman would say it was like Lifetime. The man doing the asking would usually roll his eyes and change the subject. Sometimes they would even make a joke about women’s television.

Mr. Nicholas adored women. He loved their shapes, their colors, the different scents that surrounded each one. He loved the sounds they made in the throes of passion, their laughter when happy. But most of all he wanted to tempt them into living their fantasies because when they did, he was able to lure some of them under his control. And there was nothing more devious, more dangerous, more exciting than a good bad woman. Many women tired of The Channel sooner rather than later because eventually a surfeit of wonderful grows dull. But not all women did.